Appendix B – Partners and Detailed Methods – Bulkley Watershed Connectivity Restoration Plan (WCRP)

Partners

Table 16: Bulkley River WCRP Planning Team members (past and present). Planning Team members contributed to the development of this plan by participating in scoping and planning meetings, and reviewing documents and data.
Name	Organization
Brian Williams	Gitxsan Nation
Elaine Sampson	Gitxsan Nation
Gordon Sebastian	Gitxsan Nation
JohnDegagne	Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations
Al Irvine	Society for Ecosystem Restoration in Northern BC
Sean Mitchell	Skeena Sustainability Assessment Forum
JesseStoeppler	Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition
DavidDewit	Office of the Wetsuweten
Mike Ridsdale	Office of the Wetsuweten
JuliaOnderwater	Office of the Wetsuweten
Teagan OShaughnessy	Office of the Wetsuweten
Dallas Nikal	WitsetFirst Nation
Natalie Newman	Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Peter Dekoning	Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Sandra Devcic	Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Betty Rebellato	Canadian Wildlife Federation
Nick Mazany-Wright	Canadian Wildlife Federation
Nicolas Lapointe	Canadian Wildlife Federation
Sarah Sra	Canadian Wildlife Federation

Table 17: Additional Key Actors in the Bulkley River watershed. Key Actors are the individuals, groups, and/or organizations, outside of the Planning Team, with influence and relevant experience in the watershed, whose engagement will be critical for the successful implementation of this WCRP.
Individual or Organization Name	Role and Primary Interest
B.C. Fish Passage Technical Working Group?	The provincial government of B.C. canassistwith local knowledge, data,expertiseand can helpfacilitatebarrier rehabilitation work.?
Cindy Verbeek/ A Rocha?Canada, Upper BulkleyStreamkeepers	A Rocha educates and coordinates environmental stewardship activities for local people in the upper Bulkley watershed?and can advise and support where needed.??A Rocha Canada runs the Upper Bulkley River?Streamkeepers?project working with local environmental organizations, churches, schools,governmentsand citizens to ensure the watershed is healthy and flourishing. They have bio-inventory surveying data, water temperature data, and can help ensure that salmonreachtheir spawning ground.?
CN	CN is a major proponent and barrier owner that can play a role in improving and replacing crossings in the valley bottom of the Bulkley River watershed.?
David Wilford Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (FLNRO)	Dave Wilford is a hydrologist and researcher working in the watershed.?
Gitxsan Watershed Authorities	Gitksan Watershed Authorities is a traditional and science-based body of fisheries professionals, biologists, field technicians, communityleadersand support staff. This group is governed according to the traditional Gitksan house system. The GWA functions torepresentthe Gitksan for the management of fisheries on the Skeena and within the Gitksan territories.
Jeff Anderson?	Jeff Anderson is a hydrologist at GeomorphicConsultingworking in the watershed.?
Skeena Knowledge Trust?	The Skeena Knowledge Trust can help with data management.?
Ken?Rabnett?	Ken Rabnett is a researcher, fieldleadand an excellent source of local knowledge.
Ministry?of?Transportation and?Infrastructure?(MOTI)	MOTI is a major proponent and barrier owner that can play a role in improving and replacing crossings in the valley bottom of the Bulkley River watershed.
Ministry of?Forests(MoF)	MoFcanassistwith engineering and design work forrehabilitationprojects.?
Environmental Stewardship Initiative Skeena Sustainability Assessment Forum (ESI:SSAF)	ESI:SSAF is a forum that allows first Nations and the Province to Fully collaborate to enhance environmental sustainability, and to address First Nations long standing concerns with stewardship of the land and cumulative impacts in their traditional territories by creating meaningful space for traditional ecological knowledge alongside western science.ESI:SSAFFshould be engaged to coordinate local implementation of the outcomes of the WCRP and support future planning updates.
SkeenaWild?Conservation Trust?	SkeenaWild?engages in applied scientific research on salmon ecosystems?and can help provide data.?
Skeena Fisheries Commission?	The Skeena Fisheries Commission is an umbrella organization for First Nations and works directly with the Office of the?Wetsuweten?and the Gitxsan Watershed Authority.?They can advise and support where needed.?

Detailed Mathods

For details about accessibility, habitat, or connectivity models including structure-ranking methods, see detailed documentation for BCFishPass here: https://smnorris.github.io/bcfishpass/index.html.

To generate weighted rankings for SSAF indicator values, the following methods were employed. In the more disturbed upweighting scenario, a min-max normalized value was calculated from the SSAF indicators to create a normalized pressure index, and a weighted sum was calculated for each barrier according to:

S=0.6p+0.4r

where p is the normalized pressure index and r is the normalized WCRP model barrier rank. In the undisturbed upweighting scenario, the calculation is identical but where p is replaced with (1−p). The final ranking is then determined by ordering the barriers first in ascending order of number of barriers downstream of the set, then in ascending order by weighted sum of pressure index and model ranking, with all barriers blocking less than 500 m of total habitat moved to the bottom of the list.